1.
Switzerland
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Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic in Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in western-Central Europe, and is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km2. The establishment of the Old Swiss Confederacy dates to the medieval period, resulting from a series of military successes against Austria. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognized in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The country has a history of armed neutrality going back to the Reformation, it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815, nevertheless, it pursues an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. In addition to being the birthplace of the Red Cross, Switzerland is home to international organisations. On the European level, it is a member of the European Free Trade Association. However, it participates in the Schengen Area and the European Single Market through bilateral treaties, spanning the intersection of Germanic and Romance Europe, Switzerland comprises four main linguistic and cultural regions, German, French, Italian and Romansh. Due to its diversity, Switzerland is known by a variety of native names, Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera. On coins and stamps, Latin is used instead of the four living languages, Switzerland is one of the most developed countries in the world, with the highest nominal wealth per adult and the eighth-highest per capita gross domestic product according to the IMF. Zürich and Geneva have each been ranked among the top cities in the world in terms of quality of life, with the former ranked second globally, according to Mercer. The English name Switzerland is a compound containing Switzer, a term for the Swiss. The English adjective Swiss is a loan from French Suisse, also in use since the 16th century. The name Switzer is from the Alemannic Schwiizer, in origin an inhabitant of Schwyz and its associated territory, the Swiss began to adopt the name for themselves after the Swabian War of 1499, used alongside the term for Confederates, Eidgenossen, used since the 14th century. The data code for Switzerland, CH, is derived from Latin Confoederatio Helvetica. The toponym Schwyz itself was first attested in 972, as Old High German Suittes, ultimately related to swedan ‘to burn’

2.
Minaret
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A minaret, from Arabic, منارة‎‎ manāra, lit. lighthouse, also known as Goldaste, is a distinctive architectural structure akin to a tower and typically found adjacent to mosques. Generally a tall spire with a conical or onion-shaped crown, usually either free-standing or taller than associated support structure, the basic form of a minaret includes a base, shaft, and gallery. Styles vary regionally and by period, minarets provide a visual focal point and are traditionally used for the Muslim call to prayer. The purpose of minarets in traditional Eastern region architecture is to serve as a system for a building in very hot climates. That buildings of middle eastern origins have such outstanding features is architecturally intentional, however in modern times, with the invention of the modern air conditioners, the purpose of minarets has changed to traditional symbol. The minaret would be equipped with a speaker that would call people to prayers in Muslim countries. In addition to providing a visual cue to a Muslim community, the call to prayer is issued five times each day, dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset, and night. In most modern mosques, the adhān is called from the musallah via microphone to a system on the minaret. Around 80 years after Muhammads death, the first known minarets appeared, minarets have been described as the gate from heaven and earth, and as the Arabic language letter aleph. The massive minaret of the Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia is the oldest standing minaret and its construction began during the first third of the 8th century and was completed in 836 CE. The imposing square-plan tower consists of three sections of decreasing size reaching 31.5 meters, considered as the prototype for minarets of the western Islamic world, it served as a model for many later minarets. The tallest minaret, at 210 metres is located at the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, the tallest brick minaret is Qutub Minar located in Delhi, India. In some of the oldest mosques, such as the Great Mosque of Damascus, the basic form of minarets consists of three parts, a base, shaft, and a gallery. For the base, the ground is excavated until a foundation is reached. Gravel and other supporting materials may be used as a foundation, minarets may be conical, square, cylindrical, or polygonal. Stairs circle the shaft in a fashion, providing necessary structural support to the highly elongated shaft. The gallery is a balcony that encircles the upper sections from which the muezzin may give the call to prayer, styles and architecture can vary widely according to region and time period. Here are a few styles and the localities from which they derive, Tunisia Quadrangular, turkish 1,2,4 or 6 minarets related to the size of the mosque

3.
Mosque
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A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. There are strict and detailed requirements in Sunni jurisprudence for a place of worship to be considered a mosque, many mosques have elaborate domes, minarets, and prayer halls, in varying styles of architecture. Mosques originated on the Arabian Peninsula, but are now found in all inhabited continents, the mosque serves as a place where Muslims can come together for salat as well as a center for information, education, social welfare, and dispute settlement. The imam leads the congregation in prayer, the first mosque in the world is often considered to be the area around the Kaaba in Mecca now known as the Masjid al-Haram. Others regard the first mosque in history to be the Quba Mosque in present-day Medina since it was the first structure built by Muhammad upon his emigration from Mecca in 622. The Islamic Prophet Muhammad went on to another mosque in Medina. Built on the site of his home, Muhammad participated in the construction of the mosque himself and helped pioneer the concept of the mosque as the focal point of the Islamic city. The Masjid al-Nabawi introduced some of the still common in todays mosques, including the niche at the front of the prayer space known as the mihrab. The Masjid al-Nabawi was also constructed with a courtyard, a motif common among mosques built since then. Mosques had been built in Iraq and North Africa by the end of the 7th century, the Imam Husayn Shrine in Karbala is reportedly one of the oldest mosques in Iraq, although its present form – typical of Persian architecture – only goes back to the 11th century. The shrine, while operating as a mosque, remains one of the holiest sites for Shia Muslims, as it honors the death of the third Shia imam. The Mosque of Amr ibn al-As was reportedly the first mosque in Egypt, serving as a religious, like the Imam Husayn Shrine, though, nothing of its original structure remains. With the later Shia Fatimid Caliphate, mosques throughout Egypt evolved to include schools, hospitals and it was the first to incorporate a square minaret and includes naves akin to a basilica. Those features can also be found in Andalusian mosques, including the Grand Mosque of Cordoba, still, some elements of Visigothic architecture, like horseshoe arches, were infused into the mosque architecture of Spain and the Maghreb. The first mosque in East Asia was reportedly established in the 8th century in Xian, however, the Great Mosque of Xian, whose current building dates from the 18th century, does not replicate the features often associated with mosques elsewhere. Indeed, minarets were initially prohibited by the state, mosques in western China were more likely to incorporate elements, like domes and minarets, traditionally seen in mosques elsewhere. In turn, the Javanese style influenced the styles of mosques in Indonesias Austronesian neighbors—Malaysia, Brunei, Muslim empires were instrumental in the evolution and spread of mosques. Although mosques were first established in India during the 7th century, reflecting their Timurid origins, Mughal-style mosques included onion domes, pointed arches, and elaborate circular minarets, features common in the Persian and Central Asian styles

4.
Ahmadiyya
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Ahmadiyya is an Islamic religious movement founded in Punjab, British India, near the end of the 19th century. He claimed to have been appointed as the Mujaddid of Islam. The adherents of the Ahmadiyya movement are referred to as Ahmadi Muslims or simply Ahmadis, Ahmadiyya adherents believe that Ahmad appeared in the likeness of Jesus, to end religious wars, condemn bloodshed and reinstitute morality, justice, and peace. Thus, Ahmadis view themselves as leading the revival and peaceful propagation of Islam, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad founded the movement on 23 March 1889. The Ahmadis have a strong tradition and were among the earliest Muslim communities to arrive in Britain. Currently, the community is led by its Caliph, Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the population is almost entirely contained in the single, highly organized and united movement. In this sense there is one major branch. Some Ahmadiyya-specific beliefs have been thought of as opposed to contemporary mainstream Islamic thought since the movements birth, many Muslims consider Ahmadi Muslims as either kafirs or heretics. In a manifesto dated 4 November 1900, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad explained that the name did not refer to himself but to Ahmad, the alternative name of Muhammad. According to Ahmad, these names refer to two aspects or phases of Islam, and in later times it was the latter aspect that commanded greater attention. He also called it the Ahmadiyya madhab, And it is permissible that this also be referred to as ‘Muslims of the Aḥmadī way. Ahmadi beliefs are more aligned with the Sunni tradition, than they are with the Shia tradition, such as The Five Pillars of Islam and The Six articles of Islamic Faith. Likewise, Ahmadis accept the Quran as their text, face the Kaaba during prayer, practice the Sunnah. These are the central beliefs constituting Ahmadi Muslim thought, the distinguishing feature of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is their belief in Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as the Promised Messiah and Mahdi, as prophesied by the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Through the proclamation of truth and by putting an end to conflicts, I should bring about peace. I am called upon to demonstrate spirituality which lies buried under egoistic darkness and it is for me to demonstrate by practice, and not by words alone, the Divine powers which penetrate into a human being and are manifested through prayer or attention. All this will be accomplished, not through my power, but through the power of the Almighty God, Who is the God of heaven and he believed that his message had special relevance for the Western world, which, he believed, had descended into materialism. The message which the founders of these religions brought was, therefore, essentially the same as that of Islam, the completion and consummation of the development of religion came about with the advent of Muhammad

5.
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
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Mirzā Ghulām Ahmad was an Indian religious leader and the founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam. Born in 1835 to a prominent family in Qadian, Ghulam Ahmad emerged as a writer and debater for Islam, when he was just over forty years of age, his father died and around that time he believed that God began to communicate with him. An event that marks the establishment of the Ahmadiyya movement and he is known to have engaged in numerous public debates and dialogues with Christian missionaries, Muslim scholars and Hindu revivalists. He advocated a peaceful propagation of Islam and emphatically argued against the permissibility of military Jihad under circumstances prevailing in the present age, after his death he was succeeded by his close companion Hakīm Noor-ud-Dīn who assumed the title of Khalīfatul Masīh. Although Ghulam Ahmad is revered by Ahmadi Muslims as the promised Messiah and Imām Mahdi, Mirza Ghulam Ahmads lineage through his forefathers can be traced back to Mirza Hadi Beg, a descendant of the Mughal Barlas tribe. The Barlas tribe was of Turco-Mongol ancestry, in 1530 Mirza Hadi Beg migrated from Samarkand along with an entourage of two hundred persons consisting of his family, servants and followers. Travelling through Samarkand, they settled in the Punjab, India. The family were all known as Mughals within the British governmental records of India probably due to the positions it occupied within the Mughal empire. Mirza Hadi Beg was granted a Jagir of several hundred villages and was appointed the Qadhi of Qadian, the descendants of Mirza Hadi are said to have held important positions within the Mughal empire and had consecutively been the chieftains of Qadian. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was born on 13 February 1835 in Qadian, Punjab and he was born in the Sikh Empire under Maharaja Ranjit Singh. He learned to read the Arabic text of the Quran and studied basic Arabic grammar, at the age of 10, he learned from a teacher named Fazl Ahmad. Again at the age of 17 or 18, he learnt from a teacher named Gul Ali Shah, in addition, he also studied some works on medicine from his father, Mirza Ghulam Murtaza, who was a physician. From 1864 to 1868, upon his fathers wishes, Ghulam Ahmad worked as a clerk in Sialkot, after 1868, he returned to Qadian, as per his fathers wishes, where he was entrusted to look after some estate affairs. During all this time, Ahmad was known as a recluse because he would spend most of his time in seclusion studying religious books. As time passed, he began to engage more with the Christian missionaries and he would often confront them in public debates, especially the ones based in the town of Batala. In 1886, certain leaders of the Arya Samaj held discussion and debate with Ghulam Ahmad about the truthfulness of Islam and asked for a sign to prove that Islam was a living religion. In order to dedicate special prayers for this purpose and so as to further divine guidance. Here, he spent forty days in seclusion, a known as chilla-nashini

6.
Muhammad Zafarullah Khan
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Born in Sialkot, British India, Khan was educated as a lawyer at the GC University and the Kings College London. Khan went on to serve as a member of Punjab Legislative Council between 1926 and 1931, and was a delegate in 1930,1931, and 1932 to the Round Table Conferences on Indian reforms in London, England. He became a member of the All-India Muslim League which led the Pakistan movement, in 1935, he became the Minister of Railway of British India, and sat on the British Viceroys Executive Council as its Muslim member from 1935 to 1941. In 1939 he travelled to Geneva to represent India at the League of Nations, in September 1941, Khan became a judge on the Federal Court of India and remained on the court until the partition of India. Khan became one of the most vocal proponents of Pakistan and led the case for the nation in the Radcliffe Commission which drew the countries of modern-day South Asia. He moved to Karachi in August 1947 and became a member of Pakistans first cabinet serving as the countrys foreign minister under the Liaquat administration. He remained Pakistans top diplomat until 1954 when he left to serve on the International Court of Justice and he left the Hague in 1961 to become the Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations, a position he served until 1964. During his time at the UN, he represented the State of Palestine in a de facto capacity. He left the UN in 1964 to return to the ICJ and, in 1970, he became the first and only Pakistani to serve as the President of the International Court of Justice, a position he maintained until 1973. He returned to Pakistan and retired in Lahore where he died in 1985 at the age of 92, Khan is considered as one of the leading founding fathers of Pakistan and a prominent member of the Ahmadiyya Community in Pakistan. He authored several books on Islam both in Urdu and English, Khan was born on 6th February 1893 in Sialkot and acquired his early education at the American Missionary School in Sialkot. Khans father was Ch. Nasrullah Khan who was the attorney of his native city of Daska. His father belonged to the Sahi Jat clan while his mother was of the Bajwa Jat clan, sir Zafarullah Khan was very close to his mother and inspired by her courage and devotion to her religion and even wrote a book called My Mother. He studied at Government College, Lahore and received his LL. B. from Kings College London and he was called to the bar at Lincolns Inn, London. He practised law in Sialkot and Lahore, became a member of the Punjab Legislative Council in 1926 and he participated at the Round Table Conferences held from 1930 to 1932 and became the Minister of Railways in May 1935. In 1939, he represented India at the League of Nations, from 1935 to 1941, he was a member of the Executive Council of the Viceroy of India. Within the Muslim League Working Committee, various sub-committees were established, however, when the British saw that their objectives could not be met, they unilaterally rejected all proposals submitted by the Muslims. Orthodox Muslims would become irritated if they found that this proposal was prepared by an Ahmadi, the Viceroy stated that Muhammad Ali Jinnah had been given a copy to gain acceptance from the Muslim League and publicise its contents

7.
Islam in Switzerland
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Islam in Switzerland has mostly arrived via immigration since the late 20th century. Numbering below 1% of total population in 1980, the fraction of Muslims in the population of permanent residents in Switzerland has quintupled in thirty years, a majority is from Former Yugoslavia, an additional 20% is from Turkey. The vast majority of Muslims in Switzerland adheres to the Sunni branch, some famous Muslims of Switzerland include Tariq Ramadan, Frithjof Schuon, Titus Burckhardt and Isabelle Eberhardt. The largest concentration of Muslim population is in the German speaking Swiss plateau, another remarkable demographic feature in comparison to other European countries is the relatively equal distribution throughout the country. No administrative unit has more than 8. 55% of Muslim population, the lowest percentage of Muslims in a canton is 1. 82%. 88. 3% of Muslims in Switzerland are foreigners (56. 4% from former Yugoslavia,20. 2% from Turkey,10,000 of the 400,000 Muslims could be converts. In the 10th century, Arabs and Berbers from their Mediterranean Fraxinet base settled in the Valais for a few decades and they occupied the Great St. Bernard Pass and even managed to reach as far as St. Gallen to the north and Raetia in the east. Islam was virtually absent from Switzerland until the 20th century and it appeared with the beginning of significant immigration to Europe, after World War II. A first mosque was built in Zürich in 1963 by the Ahmadiyya community, Muslim presence during the 1950s and 1960s was mostly due to the presence of international diplomats and rich Saudi tourists in Geneva. Substantial Muslim immigration began in the 1970s, and accelerated dramatically over the 1980s to 1990s, in 1980, there were 56,600 Muslims in Switzerland. This ratio quintupled over the thirty years, notably due to the immigration from Former Yugoslavia during the 1990s Yugoslav War. While the Muslim demographics is still growing rapidly, the rate of growth has decreased after the early 1990s. The growth rate corresponded to a factor of 2.7 over the 1980s, a factor of 2.0 over the 1990s, Swiss Muslim organizations begin to form in the 1980s. An umbrella organization was formed in Zürich in 1989, there are two Swiss mosques which predate 1980 and the rapid increase of immigration of Muslims from the Balkans and Turkey over the following decades. These are the Ahmadiyya mosque in Zurich, built in 1963 and also boasting the first minaret built in Switzerland, today, there are numerous further mosques and prayer rooms across the country, predominantly in the urban parts of the Swiss plateau. In 2007 the Bern city council rejected plans to one of the largest Islamic cultural centers in Europe. Four Swiss mosques have minarets, besides the Zurich and Geneva mosques mentioned above, these are a mosque in Winterthur, the latter was erected in 2009 following several years of political and legal disputes. In the wake of the Wangen minaret controversy, a initiative was passed with 57. 5% of the popular vote in November 2009